


One in Infinity

by TaeStarr



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F.O.W.L. | Fiendish Organization for World Larceny (Disney), Gen, Missing Persons, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 10:27:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29856693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaeStarr/pseuds/TaeStarr
Summary: F.O.W.L. had been defeated once and for all, but at what cost? It’s the Spear of Selene all over again...
Comments: 9
Kudos: 30





	One in Infinity

**Author's Note:**

> A few nights ago I had a dream about the upcoming Ducktales finale. It was a really epic dream, with a coherent narrative from start to finish. I love dreams like that, especially when they're about cartoon ducks. Anyway, I took bits and pieces of that dream and expanded it to nearly 4500 words. I hope you enjoy :>

Scrooge could feel sweat on both his palms as he tightly gripped the controls of the device. He could feel sweat collecting on his chest and under his arms. He was acutely aware of every nervous breath he took. He could count on one hand the number of times he’d been this shaken. The last time was a little more than eleven years prior.

“They’re not here, go to the next one,” Della said, her voice wavering slightly. She placed her hand on Scrooge’s shoulder. He looked back at her, and they shared a determined look. He immediately felt another hand on his other shoulder, and he turned to lock eyes with Donald. The crushed look in Donald’s eyes shook him to the core. He’d only seen that look once before. It was hard not to compare what was happening now to what had happened then. He tried not to think about it.

Scrooge pulled the lever in his hand, and the image on the screen in front of them changed again. Before them was another vast, alien world. There was a jungle with colorful, almost neon flora and fauna. Scrooge’s jaw momentarily fell open, in awe of the skyscraper-sized trees, unlike anything he’d ever seen. Then he and Della and Donald began to search. Three sets of eyes scanned the screen and found nothing. The sound of three defeated exhales filled the air.

Scrooge swallowed with effort. He looked over his shoulders at Donald and Della. They simply nodded, and he pulled the lever again.

Each time he pulled the lever, Scrooge would feel another dose of _hope_ deep in his being. After a quick search, that hope would be dashed. Each time he pulled the lever, he felt hope less and less.

A new world was projected on the screen in front of them. Again, they searched; again, they found nothing.

The smoldering remains of F.O.W.L. headquarters sizzled and crackled around them. The climactic battle had reduced most of the place to rubble. It had all been going so poorly – the McDuck clan and their allies had all been captured or cornered by the devious agents of F.O.W.L. There didn’t seem to be any chance of victory. But then the boys managed to sneak off and gain control of F.O.W.L.’s recreation of the Ramrod Device. They bent reality in their favor, freeing their captured comrades and destroying Bradford’s dastardly machines. Black Heron stepped in to stop them, wrestling with them for control of the device. In the struggle, they set the device off, and it fired a beam of light that engulfed Heron and the three boys.

In an instant, they were gone.

Scrooge shook his head, trying to clear the image of the boys disappearing from his mind. He pulled the lever once again and wiped his brow with his sleeve. Three sets of eyes scanned the screen and found nothing. Three hearts came another step closer to breaking.

A groan and a wheezy cough came from behind the three. Bradford Buzzard had regained consciousness to find that he was bound. Captured. He’d failed. Everything he’d worked to accomplish over the span of _decades_ had imploded in a matter of minutes. He’d been so close to total victory that he could taste it. Then those damn ducklings took it all away from him.

Bradford didn’t consider himself a particularly spiteful person, but he indulged in his spite just this once: those boys had ruined him, but in return, they had gotten what was coming to them.

“Don’t you realize that _this_ is precisely the type of thing I was hoping to prevent?” Bradford accosted. Scrooge, Donald, and Della didn’t acknowledge him. The lever was pulled once again, and the three leaned in toward the screen to look for their lost boys.

Bradford spit a small amount of blood onto the ground beside him. “You are suffering the consequences of your own actions! Your family’s identity revolves around these dumb, dangerous, _costly_ adventures. Do you remember all the collateral damage from the Shadow War? From the Moonvasion? Do you have any idea how hard it was to clean up those messes? Do you have _any_ idea how many innocent people were traumatized by those events? Your family can only come out on the other side of these adventures unscathed so many times before your luck runs out! And it looks like it finally has!”

Della saw Donald’s hand curl into a tight fist. She lightly grabbed his arm. _“Don’t let him get to you,”_ she whispered. Scrooge pulled the lever once again.

“The Ramrod Device has access to a literally _infinite_ number of realities,” Bradford continued angrily. “You have no idea which one they have been sent to. You could search for the rest of your miserable lives and the odds that you’ll find them are still _zero._ Your nephews are _gone,_ Scrooge. Gone for good. You are _never_ going to find them!”

 _“SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!”_ Donald screamed. Scrooge immediately turned and grabbed Donald, and was soon joined by Della. It took all of their effort to keep him restrained.

“Come now, lad,” Scrooge soothed, “he’s just trying to get a rise out of you. Focus on finding the boys. We’re going to find the boys.”

Donald’s rage melted away as quickly as it had come on. His shoulders drooped. Rage was quickly being replaced by total despair. He recognized this feeling. It was Della’s disappearance all over again. Except this time it was somehow _worse_. Donald watched Scrooge’s grip on the controls tighten again. Scrooge pulled the lever.

“We… we’re going to find the boys. We have to find the boys,” Scrooge repeated, his eye twitching slightly. Donald felt an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. It really was Della’s disappearance all over again. Scrooge had tried to feign confidence then, too. It eventually lead to a full-blown mental breakdown.

Three sets of eyes scanned the screen and found nothing. Three ducks found themselves fighting a losing battle with hopelessness.

Della’s lower bill was quavering. Bradford’s words had been like a knife in her soul, but she refused to let him see how badly he’d rattled her. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. And she sure as hell wouldn’t give up on her boys.

Some distance away, Fenton tended to his relatively minor injuries. The Gizmoduck suit hadn’t proved too useful during the battle after Bradford introduced a virus to its computational systems. He sat on a small piece of rubble, leaning forward with his head in his hands. They had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, but at a cost far too great. Gandra knelt at his side, gingerly rubbing circles into his back, trying to console him. A few feet behind them, Gyro leaned with his back against a wall. Lil’ Bulb sat on his shoulder as he folded his arms and looked down at the ground. Gyro was a purely logical person, and he knew that Bradford was right: the Ramrod Device had access to an infinite number of realities. The boys were sent to a random one. It didn’t matter how long they looked: the odds of finding them was effectively zero. This wasn’t finding a needle in a haystack, this was searching all of the world’s beaches for a specific grain of sand.

Elsewhere, Panchito sulked, leaning against the remains of a collapsed pillar, looking down at his feet so that his large sombrero blocked anyone from seeing his face. Anyone but Jose, who was seated at the foot of the pillar just beside him. Jose blinked away the tears that had collected on his eyelids and looked up, sharing a heartbroken look with Panchito. They couldn’t stand to see their best friend Donald go through something like this _again_. They couldn’t bear the thought of never seeing his little _patinhos_ again.

Not far from the Ramrod Device, Webby sat on the floor, surrounded on each side by Lena and Violet. She stared blankly ahead at Scrooge, Della, and Donald. The one-two punch of discovering the extent to which her grandmother had lied to her, followed immediately by the disappearance of her brothers… it was far too much for her mind to process.

Webby suddenly straightened her back and began performing Tibetan breathing meditations she’d taught herself years prior. Her mind was still a jumbled mess of panicked, racing thoughts. The meditation didn’t seem to be helping. Her steady, rhythmic breaths slowly devolved into shaky, uneven gasps.

“Shhhh, pink. I’m here,” Lena whispered, embracing Webby from behind and resting her cheek on the top of Webby’s head. “It’s going to be okay. We’re going to be okay.” From her other side, Webby felt another embrace.

“Webbigail, any logical analysis of this situation would come to a hopeless conclusion,” Violet said. Lena shot her an angry look, and Violet held up a finger to indicate that she wasn’t finished. “But I have come to learn that, with your family, anything can happen, logic be damned. That is why I refuse to give into hopelessness or despair, despite all the evidence telling me that I should.”

Webby turned toward Violet and smiled softly. She held the smile for a few seconds before her lower bill started to shake. Once the first struggled sob escaped her lips, the dam broke and many more followed. Webby grabbed Violet, shoving her face into Violet’s shirt and sobbing uncontrollably. Violet held her, gently rubbing down her back in a repeated motion as she cried. Lena soon joined the embrace. Webby’s loud sobs filled the area. The others around the room looked on with a sad pity.

Across the room, Beakley stood, nervously twiddling her thumbs. She wanted nothing more than to provide comfort to her anguished granddaughter, but she was unsure if she’d be a welcome sight to Webby after her web of lies came untangled. The look of betrayal in Webby’s eyes when Heron revealed to her the breadth of her grandmother’s lies… that was something that would haunt Beakley until the end of her days.

Beakley glanced over to Scrooge. He and Della and Donald were still hyper-focused on their search, pulling the lever, exploring the world it revealed to them, finding nothing, and repeating. Beakley tried not to think about a future without the boys. What that was going to do to Scrooge. What that was going to do to Donald and Della. What that was going to do to her granddaughter. Those boys accepted her as their adopted sister almost immediately. They really brought her out of her shell. For that, Beakley couldn’t thank them enough. She felt a pang of intense sadness at the thought that she may never get to truly express her thanks to them.

Her eyes once again settled on her inconsolable granddaughter, now curled into a ball on the floor as she continued to wail. She took a step forward before stopping, once again restricted by her guilt and her anxiety over whether or not Webby would even _want_ her comfort right now.

“Go to her.”

Beakley jumped slightly at the sudden voice behind her, turning to see Duckworth floating. He had an expression on his face that Beakley found difficult to read. There was some somberness there, definitely, but there was also an air of compassion.

“Your granddaughter needs you right now. Go to her,” Duckworth repeated.

Beakley nodded slowly in response. “Th... thank you,” she stammered out softly. Duckworth gave a curt nod of acknowledgement.

She slowly walked over to where Webby was weeping, feeling her anxiety build as she got closer. Beakley found herself chuckling lightly at herself; after decades as a super spy, she thought she could handle anything. Nothing she’d ever done as a S.H.U.S.H. agent made her feel the amount of distress that she currently felt.

With small, uneasy steps, she approached Webby. Violet was the first to notice her, and her face remained neutral. Lena then turned, following Violet’s gaze, and her face twisted into a hostile scowl. Before Lena could say anything, Webby turned and locked eyes with her grandmother.

 _“Granny!”_ Webby bawled, reaching her arms out toward Beakley like she were a toddler asking to be picked up. Beakley leaned down and scooped Webby into her arms, cradling her as she cried into her shoulder. Lena looked ready to object, but Violet reached out and grabbed her arm to stop her.

“I’m so sorry, Webbigail,” Beakley whispered gently. “I’m so, so sorry. For everything.” She began to sway lightly with Webby in her arms. Webby wrapped her arms around her grandmother’s neck and continued to cry.

“I just w-want them back. I’d give a-anything…” Webby trailed off as her voice devolved into more tears.

Beakley held Webby out in front of her and locked eyes with her. “Scrooge is going to do everything, and I mean _everything_ , in his power to ensure the boys get home safely,” Beakley said, “and a determined Scrooge McDuck is unstoppable. You know that.” In her arms, Webby’s loud sobs had dwindled to sniffles. Beakley continued, “I… I know my word doesn’t mean much right now, but I _promise_ that we’ll find Huey, Dewey, and Louie. No matter the odds we face, we will _never_ give up.”

From above, Drake, Launchpad, and Gosalyn arrived on the scene. “We’ve successfully cleared the place of any prisoners and set them free!” Drake declared boisterously. “Fethry is safe, Mr. McDuck! Though we didn’t find Gladstone Gander – he appears to have escaped on his own. And the last of the F.O.W.L. agents are in police custody, thanks to the heroic actions of Darkwing Duck!” Drake finished his little spiel by striking a pose while Launchpad pulled out a small fan to blow Drake’s cape dramatically. The fan sputtered and failed, so Launchpad leaned in and tried to use his breath, blowing on the cape with limited results. This just made Launchpad try harder and harder until his face was turning blue.

Drake held his epic pose while he looked around the room, finally seeing the sullen faces of the others around the room. His posture began to falter, and he frowned with confusion. “Wh-what’s wrong? Didn’t we win? LP, what’s going on here?”

“Give… Give me a second,” Launchpad declared. “I am _very_ dizzy.”

“Something’s wrong, Launchpad,” Drake said, using a much softer voice than he had during his grand entrance.

“The three Little Dellas were taken by that… _thing,_ ” Penumbra informed them, pointing at the re-created Ramrod Device. “They’ve been searching for nearly half an earth hour.”

“Little… Dellas?” Drake repeated, not fully understand. He began to look around, trying to account for all the allies who had answered the call to fight F.O.W.L.

Gosalyn was the first to comprehend the gravity of the situation. She gasped loudly. “Dewey’s gone… it’s the boys! The boys are gone!” Drake scanned the room and realized that she was correct. The triplets were nowhere to be found. And that would explain why the twins and Scrooge were so heavily focused on the Ramrod Device. Gosalyn fell back onto her rear, tears collecting at the corners of her eyes. She couldn’t help but think of her grandfather, lost in the endless realities of the Ramrod Device. Now, it appeared her friend and his brothers had suffered a similar fate. Drake kneeled down and placed a hand on her shoulder, and she turned and jumped into his arms, squeezing her eyes tightly to prevent tears from falling. “This is _awful._ ”

“Wait, where did Dewey go?” Launchpad asked, tilting his head like an inquisitive puppy.

“The boys… were taken by the Ramrod Device,” Drake said shakily, the severity of the situation finally weighing on him. He repositioned himself so that he was sitting next to Gosalyn, still wrapping on arm around her.

“Taken where? Am I supposed to go pick them up?” Launchpad followed up. He turned towards the Ramrod Device and cupped one hand by his bill to throw his voice. “Hey! Mr. McDee! Am I supposed to go pick Dewey and his brothers up? Where are-” Launchpad was cut off as Drake grabbed his collar and pulled him down to the floor.

“Not the time, Launchpad,” Drake said under his breath.

“Whattaya’ mean, DW?”

“Don’t you get it? The boys… the Ramrod Device sent them to an entirely different reality.”

“Yeeaaaaaa…” Launchpad replied, drawing out the word in such a way that Drake could tell he was trying to pretend to understand what he was being told. “So, when and where do I pick them up from?”

“Dangit, Launchpad!” Drake bellowed. “The boys aren’t anywhere that you can just _‘pick them up’_ from! They aren’t in Duckburg, they aren’t in Calisota, they aren’t even on the dang _planet!_ They’re lost somewhere in the inexhaustible alternate dimensions of the Ramrod Device! Just like Professor Waddlemeyer.” Drake’s voice softened with those final words, and he squeezed Gosalyn a little tighter. There was a tense silence in the room for a few moments.

“At least _someone_ gets it,” Bradford mocked, finally brave enough to speak again after Donald nearly tore him to shreds. He turned back toward Scrooge and the Ramrod Device. “For a while, Scrooge, you had me convinced that you’d learned your lesson. How could you _possibly_ allow something like this to happen to your family _again?”_

Scrooge’s grip on the controls tightened as he tried to ignore Bradford’s taunting.

“So what are you going to do now? Are you going to throw _everything_ into a fruitless endeavor? Are you going to sink every last dime you own into trying to accomplish the impossible? I won’t be there this time to stop you, to pull you back to reality! Even if it’s from prison, I will _gleefully_ watch you destroy McDuck Enterprises and everything else you’ve worked your whole life to build. All because you can’t bear to accept that the consequences of your irresponsibility have fallen on the shoulders of those three brats.”

“Shut up, you _coward!_ ” Della hollered, turning to Bradford. “ _You_ might not understand the unbreakable bond of a family. _You_ might falter at the thought of ever taking a risk. _You_ might be willing to give up when things don’t go your way. But we are not like _you._ We are Ducks! We do not give up! We do not back down! And if it takes the rest of my dang life, I _will_ find my sons. Count on it.”

“You refuse to see reality!” Bradford scoffed, giving a derisive chuckle. “How many dimensions can you check with the Ramrod Device every hour? Every day? Every year? In a lifetime? A few million? Well, a few million out of infinity might as well be zero. You can spend the rest of your days searching and it would be equally as effective as not searching at all. You think you can find a specific _one_ out of _infinity?_ There is _nobody_ in the world who is that lucky!”

Suddenly, there was a creaking noise from far above.

_“Incoming!”_

From a vent attached to (what was left of) the ceiling, a green blur fell directly on top of the Ramrod Device, bouncing off of it and bowling over Scrooge, Donald, and Della.

“I’m okay!”

Donald rubbed his head. “Gladstone?”

“Oh, hey, D-Money! Funny story! I got captured by those F.O.W.L. goons, but their maintenance guy forgot to bolt the cover back over the air conditioning vent! I was able to just crawl out! And someone left twenty dollars in the vent! Can you believe my luck? Because I sure can! This typa’ stuff happens to me _all the time!_ ”

Bradford laughed with clear contempt. “Scrooge, your family is an absolute _circus_.”

“Get offa’ me, you malign malingerer!” Scrooge barked, roughly pushing Gladstone off of him.

“Well, ‘hello’ to you too, Uncle Moneybags,” Gladstone sneered, dusting himself off as Scrooge jumped back to his feet and grabbed the controls of the Ramrod Device. Della and Donald were soon on their feet as well, ready to resume their search after that interruption.

Gladstone had smacked the lever as he fell, so the screen was displaying a brand new world. They didn’t even get a chance to search the last one. Scrooge fumed with anger. He knew that the boys probably weren’t in that last universe, but there was still a possibility, no matter how small, that they were. Scrooge closed his eyes and regulated his breathing, trying to get his anger in check.

“Oh my gosh.” Donald gasped.

Scrooge opened his eyes and saw a red hat. And a blue t-shirt. And a green hoodie.

“Boys!” Scrooge, Della, and Donald all exclaimed at the same time. Scrooge turned around and grabbed Gladstone by the face, pulling him in and kissing his cheek. Della and Donald soon joined in, wrapping Gladstone in the tightest hug any of them had ever given, bouncing back and forth as they shed tears of joy.

“I’m… happy… to see you guys… too,” Gladstone struggled out as he was crushed by the sudden onslaught of affection.

The rest of the crowd around the room began to congregate, shocked at the sudden turn of events. A hopeful chatter began amongst them as they watched.

Scrooge, Della, and Donald pulled away from the embrace, each wiping tears from their eyes. “Alright, Scrooge, open the portal. Let’s bring our boys home,” Della bubbled, still trying to stop the flow of her tears. Scrooge smacked a big red button on the Ramrod Device, and a large portal opened on the other side of the device. On the screen, a large light source illuminated the world that the boys were in, and the portal began sucking them in. They grabbed onto each other and Dewey grasped onto a tree branch, trying to avoid being sucked into the thing that had just opened behind them out of nowhere. Eventually the branch snapped, sending the three ducks hurtling towards the portal, all three screaming for their lives.

The portal behind the device closed up, but not before spewing three bodies onto the ground. The triplets were still terrified. Louie was covering his eyes, loudly repeating “this is it, this is finally it” in a panicked voice. Huey had curled into a fetal position. Dewey was simply screaming his head off.

“ _AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH_ aaaaaaaaand… we’re okay. Guys, we’re alive! At least I think! Huey, Louie, you can open your eyes now!”

Something sounded… _off_ about Dewey’s voice.

“Man, what the heck _was_ that?” Louie asked. Again, there was something clearly wrong with his voice. Scrooge, Della, and Donald began to make their way around the Ramrod Device to where it had dumped their boys.

“Some sorta… black hole, or something?” Huey suggested, slowly bringing himself to his feet and doing a few arm circles and leg stretches to make sure he wasn’t injured. Dewey jumped to his feet as well, and leant a hand down to Louie to help him up.

As the adults made their way around the Ramrod Device, the sight of the boys made them come to a stop. Their jaws fell open. Huey, Dewey, and Louie began to take in their surroundings, quickly finding their mom and uncles amongst all the destruction around them. The triplets froze in place as well.

“Boys?” Donald cautiously squawked.

It was definitely the boys. The ducks in front of them were _definitely_ Huey, Dewey, and Louie. But they were taller. Clearly _older_. Their voices were deeper. Louie was sporting similar sideburns to his great uncle.

 _“Bless me bagpipes,”_ Scrooge said under his breath. There was an extraordinary tension in the air. Everyone seemed to be glued to their spot, unable to do anything but stare at each other in awe.

Suddenly, Webby ran in, hugging (well, more like tackling) the first of the boys she could reach, which happened to be Louie. They both fell to the floor. “I thought I’d never see you again!” she yelled, her voice still wavering with emotion.

“W… Webby?” Louie stammered, clearly confused. He brought himself back to his feet, leaving one arm around Webby, who continued to hug him around the waist. Huey and Dewey kneeled down to hug Webby as well.

“Oh my gosh, Webby, I’ve missed you so much,” Dewey gushed, pulling her in for another hug. “I don’t understand, though. How are you still so young after all this time?”

“Wait a minute…” Huey muttered to himself. “Wait a minute!” he repeated, louder this time. “We’re at F.O.W.L. headquarters!” Huey scanned the room, momentarily making eye contact with many of the various allies who had helped them achieve victory. “Everyone is still here! We’ve been taken back to the night that we left!” The boys turned back towards where Scrooge, Della, and Donald were standing.

“Uncle Scrooge! Uncle Donald! _Mom!”_

The triplets began to run towards their family, Webby still firmly in Dewey’s arms. They met in one large, tearful family hug, which they held for some time. Donald pulled away slightly, still holding on to Louie. He placed both hands on each of Louie’s cheeks.

“What happened to you guys? How are you…” Donald’s voice trailed off.

“How long were we gone for, Uncle Donald?” Louie asked.

“We’ve been searching for about an hour,” Donald replied.

“An _hour?_ ” all three triplets yelped, obviously taken aback by that response. Louie cleared his throat. “Uncle Donald, we stopped counting the days after we hit a thousand. We thought we’d never…” Louie couldn’t finish the sentence, and he pulled Donald back into a hug, crying silently into his uncle’s shoulder. After a few moments, he gained some of his composure back. “We just counted the seasons, Uncle Donald. It was too depressing to keep counting the individual days. We were lost in that wilderness for _ten years_.”

“You’re home now, lads,” Scrooge soothed. “Welcome back.”

“I can’t believe it…” Huey whispered to himself.

“I swear, if I wake up tomorrow and this is all a dream, I’m going to be _pissed,_ ” Dewey added.

“Oh, hey, Dewey!” came a loud, boisterous voice. “I’m supposed to pick you and your brothers up somewhere, I think! Hey, have you gotten taller?”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going to miss this show so goddamn much


End file.
